Question

Students in a reading class have three options for their book project: making a brochure, writing a news article, or designing a computer presentation.

From past years, the teacher has determined that 20% of students usually choose to make a brochure, 30% of students usually choose to write a news article, and the remaining students usually choose to design a computer presentation.

If the teacher uses 20 colored chips in three different colors to model this situation, how many colored chips should she use to represent each book project option?


making a brochure:
blue chips

writing a news article:
yellow ships

designing a computer presentation:
red chips

Answer 1

To distribute the 20 colored chips according to the students' choices for the book project, we need to calculate the number of chips for each option based on the given percentages.

1. **Making a brochure:**
- Percentage: 20%
- Calculating number of chips:
\[
20\% \text{ of } 20 = \frac{20}{100} \times 20 = 4 \text{ blue chips}
\]

2. **Writing a news article:**
- Percentage: 30%
- Calculating number of chips:
\[
30\% \text{ of } 20 = \frac{30}{100} \times 20 = 6 \text{ yellow chips}
\]

3. **Designing a computer presentation:**
- Remaining students: 100% - 20% - 30% = 50%
- Calculating number of chips:
\[
50\% \text{ of } 20 = \frac{50}{100} \times 20 = 10 \text{ red chips}
\]

Now, summarizing the distribution:
- Blue chips (making a brochure): **4 chips**
- Yellow chips (writing a news article): **6 chips**
- Red chips (designing a computer presentation): **10 chips**

So the teacher should use:
- 4 blue chips for making a brochure,
- 6 yellow chips for writing a news article,
- 10 red chips for designing a computer presentation.